Brasilsat A2 was a Brazilian

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

satellite belonging to the Brasilsat family. It was built by

Spar Aerospace SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm, a remote manipulator system. The company went through a s ...

in partnership with Hughes. For most of its useful life it was located in the orbital position of 70 degrees west longitude and was operated by

Star One Star One was an Indian pay television channel based in Mumbai and owned by Star TV, with worldwide distribution handled by Fox International Channels. Launched on 1 November 2004, Star One was launched in the UK on Sky in November 2006. Sta ...

, a subsidiary company of

Embratel Embratel is a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. The company was the long distance arm of Telebras until it was bought by the U.S. company MCI Communications for 2.65 billion reais during the 1998 bre ...

. The satellite was based on the platform

HS-376 The Boeing 376 (sometimes referred to as the BSS-376, and previously as the HS-376) is a communications satellite bus introduced in 1978 by Hughes Space and Communications Company. It was a spin-stabilized bus, a successor to Hughes HS-333. ...

and its life expectancy was 8 years. The same was out of commission in February 2004 and was transferred to the

graveyard orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an Orbit (physics), orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellit ...

Model

The satellite had the shape of a cylinder, where on its top was a directional antenna that opened after the launching of the satellite, had the rotation stabilized of 50 to 55

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

, its movers used like propellant 136 kilograms of

hydrazine Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly hazardous unless handled in solution as, for example, hydraz ...

and was fed by

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s that supplied 982 watts at the beginning of its operation phase, using two NiCd batteries as power reserves. It carried 24

C-band C band may refer to: * C band (IEEE), a radio frequency band from 4 to 8 GHz * C band (infrared), an infrared band from 1530 to 1565 nm (roughly 200 THz) * C band (NATO) The NATO C-band is the obsolete designation given to the radio frequen ...

transmitters with 6 spare transmitters. They provided an Effective Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) effective incident radiation power> 34 dBW for most of the Brazilian territory.

History

In the 1980s, Brazil needed its own satellites to exempt foreigners. As a result of this effort, the Brazilian company

contracted in August 1982 the Canadian Spar Aerospace, Ltd., in partnership with American Hughes, to build its series of "Brasilsat A" satellites, the series consisted of two satellites, the

Brasilsat-A1 Brasilsat A1 was a Brazilian communications satellite which was operated by Embratel. It was constructed by the Spar Aerospace, and is based on the HS-376 satellite bus. The Brasilsat A1 was off duty in March 2002 and was transferred to the grave ...

and the Brasilsat A2. Built by Spar Aerospace, which received

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

125 million to build under license from Hughes, the two Brazilian satellites model HS-376. The satellites initially received the name of Brasilsat 1 and 2 and formed the beginning of the Brazilian Telecommunications Satellite System - SBTS. Subsequently, with the launch of the second generation of satellites, they were renamed Brasilsat-A1 and A2, and were replaced by the satellites

Brasilsat B1 Brasilsat B1 is a Brazilian communications satellite launched on August 10, 1994, by an Ariane rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A r ...

and

Brasilsat B2 Brasilsat B2 is a Brazilian communications satellite launched on 28 March 1995, at 23:14:19 UTC, by an Ariane 44LP H10+ launch vehicle at Kourou in French Guiana. History The Boeing Company contracted the acquisition of three satellites fro ...

. The Brasilsat A2 satellite was the second Brazilian satellite owned by the former state-owned Embratel, which was privatized on March 28, 1986, by a 2/3

Ariane rocket Ariane is a series of European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. France first proposed the Ariane project and it was officially agreed upon at ...

at Kourou's launch base in

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

. This satellite was equal to Brasilsat A1. It had a mass at the launch of 1,243 kg, Perigee of 35,778 km, Apogee of 35,794 km and a slope of 0.0 degrees. During its commercial life, it was parked at 70 degrees west. Its contractual life span was 8 years, but the satellite continued to be controlled until the end of 2004, with almost 18 years of life. Brasilsat A2 was operated directly by Embratel until the end of 2000, when

was created a subsidiary of

, which was used to manage Embratel's former fleet of satellites. After the satellite was launched in March 1986, it was placed in the orbital position of 70 degrees west

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

. In 1994 it was transferred to 65 degrees west, where it remained until the month of June 1995, it was moved in August 1995 to 92 degrees west, where it remained until January 2001, it was transferred in March 2001 to 63 degrees west in sloping orbit, the Brasilsat A2 remained in this position until February 2004 when it left service and was sent to the

. Its replacement in the orbital position of 70 degrees west to continue with the telecommunications transmissions, was the satellite Brasilsat B1, that was released in 1994.

Release

The satellite was successfully launched into space on March 28, 1986, at 23:30 UTC, by means of an Ariane 3 vehicle launched from the Space launching base of the

Guiana Space Center The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately north of the equator at a latitude of ...

along with the Satellite GStar 2. It had a launch mass of 1,140 kg.

Capacity and coverage

The Brasilsat A2 was equipped with 24

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

s in

(plus 6 reserve) to provide telecommunications services to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

References

External links

Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicaações (Embratel)

Star One satellites
{{Orbital launches in 1986 1986 in spaceflight Communications satellites Satellites using the HS-376 bus Star One satellites